Contact Ask Me About… Students should ask me about navigating study abroad as an adoptee returning to my birth country while still learning the language. My semester at Fudan University in Shanghai was not just about classes, but it was a personal journey. As a Chinese adoptee raised in the US, I looked like many…
Contact Ask Me About… As I’m already studying in a country that isn’t my own as an international student, people could ask why I’d choose to go abroad again. For me, each new environment pushes me to re-learn how I operate, from the way I approach assignments, to how I communicate in group settings, to…
Contact Ask Me About… I’d love for other students to ask me how I built real connections with local communities while studying abroad in Beijing, China, and Braga, Portugal. In Beijing, during the Penn Global Seminar program, I didn’t just stick to the classroom. I joined calligraphy workshops, savored traditional music, and explored vibrant food…
Contact Ask Me About… Living and working in a new language: While staying in Argentina for two months, I had to navigate day-to-day life and a workspace in a new language. Being an international student from Germany I have had a similar experience coming to the US for college, nevertheless, spending an entire summer only…
Contact Ask Me About… My Experience Abroad I found that my courses at the Universitat de Barcelona furthered my academic goals as both a Political Science and Hispanic Studies student. I took two political science classes, the EU: Political Institutions and Introduction to Public Law, which were invaluable experiences. These courses helped me develop my knowledge…
Contact Ask Me About… As a pre-med student, I was one of few in my cohort at Penn who studied abroad, which was initially daunting. There’s often an assumption that going abroad is difficult or distracting from Penn’s rigid pre-med track, but my semester in Edinburgh showed me just how valuable it can be. I…
Contact Ask Me About… Experiencing an abroad environment alone for the first time felt surreal and, at times, lonely. Yet, with every abroad experience, there are always those converging feelings of excitement and fear. Being an identical twin sister who didn’t go to the same university as my sister, I felt as though this abroad…
Contact Ask Me About… Studying at Oxford, something unique about my abroad experience was immersing myself in an intense academic culture while still wanting to make the most of everything outside the classroom. Studying abroad is most often seen as a step away from Penn’s academics, but Oxford was equally rigorous, just in a very…
Contact Ask Me About… One unique aspect of my time abroad was that I was the only student from Penn in the program, so I didn’t have a built-in support system and had to step outside my comfort zone to form connections. I lived in an apartment with complete strangers from different backgrounds, which taught…
Contact Ask Me About… My first travel experiences abroad were only because of Penn. I spent my first trip abroad studying in Stockholm, Sweden. I spent my first work trip abroad in Porto, Portugal, interning at Churchill’s, a small, family-run Port wine company. When I arrived, I didn’t know a thing about wine—or how to…